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Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

13 March - Blogs I'm Following

Laser, built in 1963 by Edward Damon, Ohio State University, USA, based on work of Theodore Maiman. Exhibit in National Museum of American History, Washington, DC, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bottom device: experimental ruby crystal and laser waveguide, 1959. Top device: First laser and its ruby crystal, emitting first light on May 16, 1960. Photograph: Theodore Maiman, who created both devices. Exhibit in National Museum of American History, Washington, DC, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

*-by Tracy B Ann* For Missouri state Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal, who is running for Congress in Missouri’s 1st congressional district, education is a top priority. In this district, the high poverty areas have the worst school systems, the worst outcomes for students, and the largest number of unaccredited schools. This is an issue near and dear to the senator; it’s personal. As eloquent and articulate as she is now, she was born with a speech impediment. It was 8 years of speech therapy and public school that helped her overcome this disability. Boy, did she overcome it. Mari...more »

*Popular Mechanics:* *How the Military Will Be Revolutionized By Laser Weaponry* ​Silent, searing hot, and moving at the speed of light, today's military lasers will change how tomorrow's wars are fought. There's a technological revolution brewing in warfare. Silent and invisible, it relies on high intensity pulses of light to kill or incapacitate, all at the speed of light. After decades of promises and false starts, lasers are at last finally entering military service. And warfare will never be the same. The first laser was demonstrated by Theodore Maiman in California's Hughe...more »

U.S. authorities are considering proposals by the United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPTF) to screen all teenagers in America for mental health problems – in what some are saying is a push to increase the prescription of psychiatric drugs among the population. The USPTF recently updated their recommendations on the screening of children and teenagers for major depressive disorder (MDD) in an article in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. They demand that children aged 12 and older be routinely screen for MDD. Naturalnews.com reports: The USPSTF reviews scientific...more »

North Korea have threatened to wipe Manhattan off the map on Sunday, saying they are capable of sending a hydrogen bomb on a ballistic missile directly to New York. “Our hydrogen bomb is much bigger than the one developed by the Soviet Union,” DPRK Today, a North Korean state-run outlet reported on Sunday. “If this H-bomb were to be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile and fall on Manhattan in New York City, all the people there would be killed immediately and the city would burn down to ashes,” Pyongyang boasted, referencing nuclear scientist Cho Hyong Il as the source o...more »

A researcher has found a Stonehenge style megalithic site at the bottom of Lake Michigan, alongside a boulder with a prehistoric carving of a mastodon. Mark Holley, professor of underwater archeology at Northwestern Michigan University College, discovered the megalithic site as he travelled across the lake in a ship equipped with sonar technology to examine old shipwrecks. Americanintelligencereport.com reports: While combing Grand Traverse Bay they observed unique rock formations resembling Stonehenge, and rocks with strange engravings, one which Holley believes to be a Mastodon. ...more »

A children’s research organisation has said that the use of drugs such as Ritalin to treat children who suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has no long-term health benefits. The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute say that early research shows that Ritalin is ineffective at helping children academically and mentally as they get older. They followed 178 children suffering from ADHD and 212 children without ADHD for three years to identify what factors effect the development of children suffering with the disorder. Their findings found that children taking R...more »

*A Pail of Oysters* Vern Sneider 246 pages Kindle and epub formats available Amazon link The latest offering from Camphor Press is Vern Sneider's A Pail of Oysters, an incredibly moving novel of Taiwan in the White Terror years. Camphor's own description is spot-on: Vern Sneider’s *A Pail of Oysters* is the most important English-language novel ever written about Taiwan. Yet despite critical acclaim, this exciting and controversial book has long been unavailable to readers. Unlike Sneider’s previous novel, the humorous bestseller The Teahouse of the August Moon, this 1953 publicatio...more »

Remember the war resisters I used to blog about all the time? It may surprise you to learn that many are still in Canada. And are still fighting to stay. For these men and women, it's as if the recent change of government never happened. Of course I realize that a handful of people from the US are not Justin Trudeau's top priority. Still, they are people of peace and conscience. They make Canada a better country. *Accepting them* makes Canada a better country. Their cause is just, and the help they need can be so easily provided. * * * * Justin Trudeau's Liberal government has ma...more »

So in keeping with diving into Icons, let's go ahead and take random character generation out for a spin... Phase 1 - Origin Phase 1 has us rolling for our character's origin... So rolling 2d6 I got an 8, which means my character has a gimmick. Phase 2 - Attributes So for Phase 2 I roll 2d6 and look up on a table for my Prowess, Coordination, Strength, Intellect, Awareness and Willpower. *Attribute* *Roll* *Adjective* *Lev*el *Prowess* 10 Great 6 *Coordination* 6 Fair 4 *Strength* 6 Fair 4 *Intellect* 10 Great 6 *Awareness* 11 Incredible 7 *Willpower* 9 Great 6 Some extreme...more »

A new study by the University of Chicago has confirmed the link between meditation and increased wisdom. Researchers working in the Department of Psychology say that they have found evidence that suggests performing activities such as meditation and ballet leads to an overall increase in wisdom. Activistpost.com reports: The researchers gave 298 participants a survey that asked about their experiences practicing meditation, the Alexander Technique (a method for improving posture, balance, coordination, and movement), the Feldenkrais Method (a form of somatic education that seeks to...more »

An American military trainer instructs an Iraqi soldier at the Taji base complex on January 7, 2015 (AFP Photo/Ahmad al-Rubaye) *Tom Engelhardt, Tom Dispatch*:* Been There, Done That. The American Way of War as a Do-Over * With General John Campbell’s tour of duty in Afghanistan finished, a new commander has taken over. Admittedly, things did not go well during Campbell’s year and a half heading up the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) there, but that’s par for the course. In late 2015, while he was in the saddle, the Taliban took the provincial capital of Kunduz, the ...more »

[image: Peeking Woman Don't Look - 900] When you have your first abortion, go home and make jokes. Sit down and talk about "how you were 'killin' it' today and laugh with your friends." That's the advice of "a waitress in Minneapolis" with the improbable name of...more »

Photos by Sandra Rambler, San Carlos Apache Jane Sanders, wife of US Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders, at Oak Flat today. Sanders was welcomed by San Carlos Apache Councilman Wendsler Nosie. Delores Rambler Cassadore, the first San Carlos Apache to receive a master's in education, was at the ceremonial grounds of Oak Flat to meet Sanders. Cassadore retired after teaching Apache

The Pentagon, headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, taken from an airplane in January 2008. Wikipedia *Sandra I. Erwin, National Defense:** Pentagon’s Strategy to Counter Russia, China, Begins to Take Shape* The nation’s top generals and admirals will gather in the coming weeks to mull over ideas on what the Pentagon must do to close the gap as Russia and China continue to push the edge of their military capabilities. These talks are likely to shape decisions on what investments, policy and organizational changes the Defense Department would have to make to offse...more »

*Study carefully all the things in this picture. Then: don't.* BBC writes on the White Terror -- no kidding, BBC feels it needs to publish "the other side" of a government program of mass murder, torture, intimidation, censorship, and colonial control of food, energy, education, the economy, and finance. Sick: While victims' families label Chiang "the murderer", others, especially those whose families fled with him from communist China, credit him with liberating Taiwan from Japanese colonial rule. They argue he had to consolidate control over the island and keep it from descendin...more »

*From* *Jenna Orkin* "Blunt Force Injuries To The Head" - Putin's Multi-Millionaire, Media Mogul Was Murdered In A Luxury DC Hotel FBI Morale "Very Good" As 'Immune' Hillary IT-Staffer Reportedly A "Devastating Witness" Fukushima Five Years Later: "The Fuel Rods Melted Through Containment And Nobody Knows Where They Are Now" Israeli Placental Cell Therapy Could Cure Radiation Sickness WATCH: British lawmaker confesses to being a spy South Sudan lets fighters rape women in place of wages Rubio "Drops Out" Of Ohio - Tells Voters To Support Kasich JOHN MCAFEE: Either President Obama’...more »

*Philip Obaji JR., Daily Beast*: *The Nigerian War That’s Slaughtered More People Than Boko Haram* The fight between Muslim herdsmen and mostly Christian farmers has killed more than 60,000 people in the last 15 years. It’s a situation jihadists mean to exploit. JOS, Nigeria — It may well have been the bloodiest seven days in recent times. In north-central Nigeria, cattle herders and four farming communities armed with guns and machetes waged pitched battles last month. It was the latest round of violence in a long-running fight over grazing rights in the region. Anyone who’s wa...more »

The Congressional Progressive Caucus has between 70 and 80 members. It was started in 1991 by Bernie Sanders (I-VT) along with Ron Dellums (D-CA), Lane Evans (D-IL), Tom Andrews (D-ME), Pete DeFazio (D-OR) and Maxine Waters (D-CA). Members still in Congress now who were the very first to join up were Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and-- believe it or not-- Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Bernie was elected chairman. I woke up this morning thinking, "what fucking good are they?" The current batch aren't even all progressives. The CPC is very... lenient abo...more »

“Andromeda is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Our Galaxy is thought to look much like Andromeda. Together these two galaxies dominate the Local Group of galaxies. The diffuse light from Andromeda is caused by the hundreds of billions of stars that compose it. The several distinct stars that surround Andromeda's image are actually stars in our Galaxy that are well in front of the background object. *Click image for larger size.* Andromeda is frequently referred to as M31 since it is the 31st object on Messier's list of diffuse sky objects. M31 is so distant it tak...more »

*“Try To Remember…”* by Chet Raymo “In a sleepless hour of the night, I was trying to remember the last name of a person I have known well for more than forty years. When my spouse stirred in her sleep, I asked her. She couldn't remember either. One again I started mentally through the alphabet. "I think it starts with B," I said. Ten minutes later she rolled over and said, "The next letter is R." Bingo! The name popped into my head. Or I should say, "popped out of my head." Because it was in there somewhere, recorded in a tangle of neurons as materially as if it were written on a ...more »

*“Another Night In The Ruins”* “How many nights must it take one such as me to learn that we aren't, after all, made from that bird that flies out of its ashes, that for us as we go up in flames, our one work is to open ourselves, to be the flames?” - Galway Kinnell

"Human Nature: What Kind of Creature Are We?" by John Robbins "What can we know? What are we all? Poor silly half-brained things peering out at the infinite, with the aspirations of angels and the instincts of beasts." - Arthur Conan Doyle "These days, many of us tend to think that human nature is inherently competitive and destructive. We hear about “selﬁsh genes,” as if our genetic makeup predetermines that we will be egotistic people and that we will ﬁght with one another. We’re told that our species contains a built-in “killer instinct,” that we are descended from apes who nee...more »

[image: Frauke Petry, chairwoman of the AfD, second left, celebrates with member of the European Parliament Beatrix von Storch, left, at the gathering of the right-populist AfD (Alternative for Germany) after the closing of the state elections in the German federal states of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, March 13, 2016. Three German states were voting Sunday in the first significant political test since the country saw a massive influx of migrants.] BERLIN (AP) -- A nationalist, anti-migration party powered into three German s...more »

"The Battle of Watling Street" by Wikipedia "In AD 43, Rome invaded south-eastern Britain. The conquest was gradual. While some kingdoms were defeated militarily and occupied, others remained nominally independent as allies of the Roman empire. One such people was the Iceni in what is now Norfolk. Their king, Prasutagus, secured his independence by leaving his lands jointly to his daughters and to the Roman emperor, Nero, in his will. But when he died, in 61 or shortly before, his will was ignored. The Romans seized his lands and violently humiliated his family: his widow, Boudica...more »

"Nobody can save you but yourself. You will be put again and again into nearly impossible situations. They will attempt again and again through subterfuge, guise, and force to make you submit, quit and/or die quietly inside. But don't, don't, don't. It's a war not easily won, but if anything is worth winning then this is it. Nobody can save you but yourself, and you're worth saving." - Charles Bukowski ○

"It is easy to be disgruntled if you are denied rights and freedoms to which you feel entitled. But if you are not coherent, if you cannot put into words what it is that displeases you and why it is unfair and should change, then you are dismissed as an unreasonable whiner. You may be lectured about perseverance and patience, life as a test, the need to accept the higher wisdom of others." - Ayaan Hirsi Ali

*"All 2.3 Million Species Are Mapped into a Single Circle of Life"* Lineages of all known species on Earth are finally pieced together. By Mark Fischetti "Since Charles Darwin's day, biologists have depicted how new organisms evolve from old ones by adding branches to numerous trees that represent portions of the animal, plant and microbial kingdoms. Researchers from a dozen institutions recently completed a three-year effort to combine tens of thousands of trees into one diagram, most readable as a circle (below). The lines inside the circle represent all 2.3 million species that hav...more »

President Muhammadu Buhari delivers 2016 budget at the National Assembly in Abuja, Nigeria December 22, 2015. REUTERS/STRINGER *IBTimes:* *Is Boko Haram Defeated? Nigerian President Buhari Accused Of Exaggerating Victories Over ISIS-Affiliated Terror Group* Following comments from Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari that the Islamic terror group known as Boko Haram no longer held territory within the country, both U.S. and Nigerian regional authorities contradicted that claim. Buhari campaigned on a pledge to defeat Boko Haram, and while the Nigerian government has made advances in...more »

*Washington Post:* *Hundreds of thousands protest throughout Brazil* RIO DE JANEIRO — Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians filled streets across the country Sunday to protest corruption and call for the impeachment of deeply unpopular President Dilma Rousseff and the jailing of her predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Protests were reported in every state in Brazil. Wearing yellow and green Brazil national soccer team shirts and singing the national anthem, protesters denounced a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal involving bribes and kickbacks on fat contracts at the state-...more »

Republican presidential front runner Donald Trump says he is not responsible for the violence that erupts regularly around his rallies. Instead the Donald threatened Bernie Sanders on Sunday by saying that his follower base may retaliate against the Democratic presidential hopeful by showing up at his future events and using disruptive tactics. Donald Trump holds Bernie Sanders responsible for the violent behavior that has recently shown its ugly face at Trump rallies, which are usually permeated with an aura of tremendous love and loyalty. The Donald has put his presidential rival ...more »

Serbian authorities are investigating reports of a cargo package destined for Portland, Oregon containing explosive warheads. Two air-to-surface missiles were found on board a passenger flight in Serbia. Sputnik reports: According to Serbian news agency Tanjug, Air Serbia, the largest air Serbian carrier, has confirmed that an undisclosed “package” was discovered by a sniffer dog aboard a passenger aircraft, “thanks to the strict measures of security control”. “We confirm that a package that headed towards a remote destination was found earlier this day in Belgrade airport, thanks t...more »

*The backlash to free trade is now crossing what passes for a political spectrum, with protectionism on the rise across Europe and the U.S.—and right here in NZ But protectionism is a threat to both peace and prosperity, argues Georgi Vuldzhev in this guest post.* The political circus of the 2016 presidential election has revived and reinvigorated popular belief in age-old protectionist fallacies. Currently both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, are both in favor of expanding protectionist trade policy, with both of them arguing that free trade “destroys” jobs and hurts domestic...more »

*Daily Mail*: *German voters' crushing verdict on open-door migration: Angela Merkel is punished in crucial state elections as far-Right party wins big vote with call to stop flow of refugees* * Three German regions vote for state legislatures on 'Super Sunday' * Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt all vote * Angela Merkel's party set to lose support in the wake of refugee crisis * Exit polls suggest the Christian Democratic Union has lost in two states * Anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AFD) set to win seats at all three German voters turned to th...more »

*DW*:* Deadly clashes in Yemen's Aden kill scores of people* Fighting has continued to rage in the southern Yemeni city of Aden as forces loyal to President Mansour Hadi target al Qaeda militants with Saudi help. The violent clashes have killed at least 22 people in the port city. Government forces backed by Saudi air force killed at least 17 al Qaeda fighters in Aden, the temporary base of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's government. Two civilians and three government troops were also killed in Sunday clashes. Al Qaeda and "Islamic State" jihadists have taken advantage of the ...more »

*Reuters:* *Al Qaeda gunmen kill 16 in Ivory Coast beach attack* Gunmen from al Qaeda's North African branch killed 16 people, including four Europeans, at a beach resort town in Ivory Coast on Sunday, the latest in a string of deadly attacks that have confirmed the Islamists' growing reach in West Africa. Six shooters targeted hotels on a beach at Grand Bassam, a weekend retreat popular with westerners about 40 km (25 miles) east of the commercial capital Abidjan, before being killed in clashes with Ivorian security forces, the government said. "Six attackers came onto the beach...more »

[image: Little Sisters of the Poor - 900] Obamacare has faced repeated opposition from legislative repeal efforts and court challenges, and now a group of nuns is taking the law to the Supreme Court. The Little Sisters of the Poor is fighting for an exemption to the Obamacare contraception...more »

Donald Trump’s Presidential Bid Proves the US Electoral System is a F*cking JokeSix Non-Corporate News Outlets You Should Be Following The American Fascist We Must All Renounce Trump's Dangerous Invitation to ViolenceBy Robert Reich 12 March 16 his morning, Donald Trump defended his supporters' right to "hit back" at campaign event protesters – one day after a Trump supporter was criminally

The Russian Foreign Minister has said that Moscow has evidence that Turkish troops are on Syrian territory. Sergei Lavrov who accused Turkey of “creeping expansion” in northern Syria made the remarks during an interview with Russian Ren-TV on Sunday. “According to our information, they are digging in a few hundred meters from the border inside Syria,”Lavrov said Press TV reports: Russian Defense Ministry officials showed satellite images at a briefing in Moscow, revealing that tanker trucks loaded oil at installations controlled by Daesh in Syria and Iraq, before entering neighborin...more »

*New York Times:* *Explosion in Ankara Kills at Least 34, Turkish Officials Say* ISTANBUL — A large blast ripped through the heart of Ankara, Turkey’s capital, on Sunday, killing at least 34 people and injuring 125, government officials said. The explosion occurred in Kizilay Square, near a central bus station, a park and several government ministries. Television footage showed several vehicles on fire. The Ankara governor’s office said the explosion was believed to have been caused by a car bomb. On Friday, the United States Embassy there had warned Americans of a potential ter...more »

Finance Minister Bill English must be getting good advice. Going against the wordlwide trend for such things, he has ruled out bailing out over-stretched dairy farmers. *English told TVNZ's Q+A yesterday that he doubted that would be a threat to the financial stability of the country, banks were stronger than at the time of the global financial crisis and the Government would not step in with any bailout for farmers. "A few billion in losses is not a threat to financial stability. The regime that's in place now means the banks are stronger than they've ever been with a gre...more »

A Syrian monitoring group says ISIS group commander Omar al-Shishani better known as Omar the Chechen has been ‘clinically dead’ for several days after a US air strike in northern Syria. Israel National News reports: “Shishani is not able to breathe on his own and is using machines. He has been clinically dead for several days,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Abdel Rahman said the notorious red-bearded commander, known as Omar the Chechen, was in a hospital in the northern province of Raqa, ISIS’s bastion in Syria. A US official said on Marc...more »

This is a guest post by Earl Happs Back to Basics: An Atmospheric Primer For The UNIPCC In the 1920’s the inventor of the Dobson Spectrometer designed to measure ozone in the atmosphere, Gordon Dobson, quickly discovered that total column ozone maps surface pressure. Low pressure cells generated in […]

http://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/03/08/news/are-irvings-destroying--new-brunswick No. Don't go to this site yet. You have to be patient until May when this article is scheduled to appear. I shall be watching for it, too. Meanwhile, the National Observer also has an interesting tale about Kevin O'Leary, TV star, and the man who is touting himself to be leader of the federal Conservative Party in Canada; and his pitch is heavily based on his 'incredible' success in business. http://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/01/26/news/real-and-shocking-story-kevin-olearys-business-career and...more »

Donald Trump has accused the Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders and his supporters of disrupting his recent rallies. The Republican presidential front-runner, whose inflammatory remarks are allegedly fueling the potential for violence, refused to tone down his rhetoric on Sunday. The billionaire issued a warning on twitter: “Bernie Sanders is lying when he says his disruptors aren’t told to go to my events. Be careful Bernie, or my supporters will go to yours!” Yahoo News reports: His accusation came after a Trump rally in Chicago on Friday was called off amid scenes of violence th...more »

Turkish authorities have reportedly imposed media restrictions and blocked access to social media following the deadly suicide car bombing in the Turkish capital Ankara. Some media broadcasters say that they have been subject to a ban on covering aspects of the explosion. Turkey’s telecommunications authority, TIB, reportedly blocked access to social media after a court-ordered ban was imposed. RT reports: Access to Facebook, Twitter, and a number of other sites has been blocked because images showing victims of the tragedy were being shared on those platforms, according to the cour...more »

[image: Members of emergency services work at the scene of an explosion in Ankara, Turkey, Sunday, March 13, 2016. A television channel said the bomb exploded close to bus stops near a park at Ankara's main square, Kizilay. The news channel said the explosion occurred as a car slammed into a bus, suggesting that the blast may have been caused by a car bomb. Several vehicles had caught fire, it said.] ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- A car bombing in Turkey’s capital has killed at least 27 people and wounded around 75 others on Sunday, officials said. The blast occurred on the city’s main boule...more »

*Title: Climate Change: What Does Science Really Say? Source: TomWoodsTV. Date Published: March 9, 2016. Description: * To call any aspect of the climate change orthodoxy into question is to risk being condemned as "anti-science." But are the arguments and computer models of the so-called mainstream really so rock solid?

Much of the present debate over autonomous weapons systems (AWS) focuses on their use in war. On one side, scholars argue that AWS will make war more inhumane (Asaro, 2012), that the decision to kill must be a human being’s choice (Sharkey, 2010), or that they will make war more likely because conflict will be […]

The SisterGiant/Blue America Progressive Candidates Forum video above features interviews by Marianne Williamson with Alan Grayson (D-FL), DuWayne Gregory (D-NY) and Alex Law (D-NJ). DuWayne is already the official Democratic Party candidate running for the Long Island seat held by Republican neocon Peter King. Grayson and Law, however, are in important primaries against conservative Democrats. Both of them are on Bernie's team and both of them challenging establishment bosses' picks for the offices they seek. Grayson, particularly, discusses that in some depth with Marianne. Als...more »

Terrorists can be identified by the victory signs they post in group photos and selfies, according to Jordanian scientists. Researchers have developed a method that, when combined with other data, could be helpful in breaking new ground in identifying masked terrorists Tech Times reports: Images in which terrorists flash the “V for victory” sign often show this: a person has his face and head completely covered with a scarf or hood to hide his identity while he stands over the corpse of a victim, flashing the “V” sign. Because the person’s face and head are hidden, law enforcement is...more »

It would seem that just like Gerry Downing, the BBC have trouble criticising or even identifying terrorists. This BBC report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-35798502 starts thus: 'Al-Qaeda-linked militants have killed at least 14 civilians and two soldiers in a gun attack on a beach resort in south-eastern Ivory Coast. The attackers fired on beach-goers in Grand Bassam, about 40km (25 miles) from the commercial capital Abidjan.' No BBC, these people aren't militants, they're terrorists. More accurately they're Islamists terrorists.

"Habitual liars invent falsehoods not to gain any end or even to deceive their hearers, but to amuse themselves. It is partly practice and partly habit. It requires an effort in them to speak truth." - William Hazlitt *Truth? From Hillary?* Too bad the joke's on us...

Last Wednesday's concert in Edmonton with the ESO was noteworthy for many reasons and one I had been looking forward to for some time. Beyond the obvious of including one of my favourite Beethoven piano concertos, it was to be played by a Canadian pianist, Janina Fialkowska, whom I had seen in concert before, back in my university days. It was also the first time I had chance to see the Edmonton Symphony led by its regular conductor, William Eddins, as well. My previous two concerts involved guest conductors. This was also to be the last of the three ESO concerts that I will ...more »

https://lisagawlas.wordpress.com/2016/03/13/the-power-the-magic-the-amazing-you/ *The Power, The Magic, The Amazing YOU!! * Before I get into the wonders of yesterday, I do want to make sure that everyone is clear on what I attempted to say yesterday in my sharing. This is prompted by a very important comment left on this blog. Yes, everything in all of creation IS god experiencing him/her self thru every thing. God, Source (whatever) will always experience life thru us as us. However, that does not make everyone Self realized. Any aspect of fear that we carry, no matter what ...more »

*"’Unconscious Mind’ Makes Best Choices”* by PhysOrg “Researchers at the University of Rochester have shown that the human brain- once thought to be a seriously flawed decision maker- is actually hard-wired to allow us to make the best decisions possible with the information we are given. The findings were published in the journal “Neuron.” Neuroscientists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky received a 2002 Nobel Prize for their 1979 research that argued humans rarely make rational decisions. Since then, this has become conventional wisdom among cognition researchers. Contrary to Kah...more »

Courtesy of d r i f t g l a s s: For over a week now, MSNBC has been touting it's (sic) upcoming Town Hall event with Hillary Clinton, which is scheduled to take place on Monday, March 13 (tomorrow) here in Springfield, Illinois. But there is one, small hitch: no one in Springfield seems to know where this Town Hall is supposed happen, or how to go about getting a ringside seat. MSNBC's web site yields no useful information, and neither the Clinton campaign website nor the campaign FaceBook page makes any mention of "town hall". Also the person staffing the only publicly a...more »

[image: In this file photo taken on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015, woman carry goods for sale near a fishing village renowned as a tourist hot spot visited by French and other tourist yearly in Grand Bassam, Ivory Coast. Assailants opened fire on beach goers Sunday, March 13, 3016, in Grand-Bassam, a historic resort town in Ivory Coast sending tourists fleeing through hotels. Photos posted to social media apparently taken at the scene showed bodies sprawled on the beach.] ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) -- The Latest on the beach attack in Ivory Coast (all times local): 7:23 p.m. A group that mon...more »

[image: In this photo taken Feb. 2, 2016, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis. speaks in Washington. Ryan said Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, Republicans need to stop fighting angrily among themselves and not be distracted by guns or other "hot-button" issues that President Barack Obama raises.] While the House Ways and Means Committee rolled out a debt-reducing package of tax-cuts Thursday, it may not be enough to get conservatives to back the budget numbers agreed upon by former Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama last...more »

If there is one thing that could cut off my minor trickle of contributions to the Sanders campaign, it would be his support of the segregative and punitive corporate charter schools that now threaten the future of humane and sane public education. Obviously, the Sanders people must clarify what sounds to be (at 1:10 on the audio) an endorsement of the No Excuses chain gangs:

Some of you Sanderñistas on social media have been seeing the creeping trope from Hillarybots, a time-honored tactic that's been used on both sides, but especially ours. It's the argument that inevitably comes after one Democrat or another wins a few more primaries and caucuses than the other. In this case, I'm hearing more and more, and it's pissing me off more and more, that we should stand by our man (or woman) and vote party no matter what. If you don't, then Trump will win and we wouldn't want *that*, now would we? I call it the Bogey Man Argument. Well, no, we ...more »

*One of the earliest reports of this news* *Video at above link also * At least 27 people have been killed and 75 wounded in a car bombing in Turkey's capital, the local governor's office has said. The explosion happened in the centre of Ankara around 6.45pm local time, the official statement said. "The blast was caused by a vehicle packed with explosives close to Kizilay square," it said. [image: Ankara is the capital of Turkey] Location, location *Kizilay is a main shopping and transport hub close to the city's embassy area.* *The car detonated close to a bus and caused several v...more »

By Paul Homewood h/t Patsy Lacey http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/03/03/eu-has-failed-to-save-carbon-market-from-long-term-gloom-say-ana/ From the Telegraph: The EU’s bid to rescue its beleaguered carbon market has “failed” to provide the stable price outlook which is needed to incentivise low-carbon investment, according to leading market analysts. The price of emitting carbon tumbled 45pc over the past two […]

*THE FABRICATOR * THE ARROGANT BULLY * THE REAL THING* *We're halfway through the Presidential Primaries and already a trend is becoming apparent; Hillary's credibility baggage is far too heavy and her light is fading; Trump's arrogance and bullying tactics are now a mirror of many of his followers as his campaign implodes while Bernie's tenacious empowering message wins the day in Michigan ~ and with that win ~ the electorate are beginning to slowly realize that the only proven and credible change agent left in this race is Bernie Sanders: Allen L Roland, PhD* *Does any Am...more »

*Liz Sly, Washington Post:* *How the Syrian revolt went so horribly, tragically wrong* GAZIANTEP, TURKEY — To get rid of one bad man, you open the door to many. That is a rough translation of the slogan Wael Ibrahim had written on the banner he was preparing for the next anti-government demonstration he and his fellow democracy activists were planning in the Syrian city of Aleppo. It was February 2013, and Ibrahim, a truck driver who had become a leader in the protests against President Bashar al-Assad, was trying, as diplomatically as possible, to sustain the spirit of the origina...more »

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault (L) and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry attend a news conference after meeting over the crisis in the Mideast, at the Quai d'Orsay ministry in Paris, France, March 13, 2016. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes *Reuters*: *U.S., France say Syrian government trying to spoil peace talks* The United States and France accused the Syrian government of trying to disrupt a new round of peace talks set to begin on Monday and said Russia and Iran would need to show the Syrian government was "living up to" what had been agreed. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid a...more »

Herr Trumpf isn't just saying *"Geh von meinem Rasen"* (get off my lawn). He's trying a very real political revolution of his own... a fascist revolution based of fear-based violence. Please watch Rachel Maddow's clip above; I never use the words "must see" but I am today. I've been taking Trump as a laughing matter. I'm not any more. I'm not going to call him Herr Trumpf any longer on this blog. He's Trump. Joke is over. No more, "ha, ha, ha... look what the stupid Republicans have done to their pathetic party. They deserve it." They may, but the rest of us don't. He is consciou...more »

*anyone who has been paying attention knows the truth.* Those who are blaming Trump are a big part of the problem. The definition of a liberal is anyone who will try to destroy someone who dares to disagree with them. Peruse some of the pictures of protesters and you will see the demonic reflected in their faces. These are not civilized people. Screaming hate slogans, waving fists, and shoving their middle fingers into the faces of others is not civilized behavior. * Judge Jeanine Pirro Opening Statement - Attack On 1st Amendment and Trump Rally * *Powerful! * *More:* ...more »

Because we don’t. And by we I mean teachers. As a former college professor who has attended meetings of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), I know what magic stands behind that curtain. The vast, vast majority of teachers have no idea about AERA or, if they do, don’t care about it. The goal of […]

What can be said about bias on this morning's *The Andrew Marr Show*? Well, plenty - if Twitter's anything to go by (not that it usually is). As ever, the accusations have been flung from all directions and have wildly contradicted each other: Corbynistas have accused 'Tory Marr' of letting Gideon get away with lies and being mean to John McDonnell; a few Tories have accused Andrew Marr of pro-Labour bias for being too nice to John McDonnell; and plenty of people have claimed that Andrew Marr was far nicer to John McDonnell and George Osborne (both Remain) than he was to (pro-Le...more »

What have they been putting in John McDonnell's coffee? According to some, John's embrace of fiscal responsibility, tight spending, and deficit reduction is a surrender to "the capitalist parasites". And proving you cannot please some people no matter what you say, there have been criticisms from the right of the party arguing that his economics are the same kind that were rejected last year and in 2010. I don't know if the memory-loss associated with politics is a recent thing brought by social media churn, or is something deeply structural. But there wasn't a great deal John sai...more »

*David Axe, Daily Beast*: *DARPA’s New ‘LighteningStrike’ Plane: Up Like a Chopper, Out Like a Jet* The U.S. military thinks it may have found the holy grail of aviation—but will the new hybrids be any safer than the deadly Ospreys? An aircraft that can take off and land vertically like a helicopter—and yet cruise fast and far like an airplane—is arguably the holy grail of U.S. military aviation. After decades of near misses, the Pentagon’s scientists think the hybrid-flight grail is finally within reach. In early March, the fringe-science Defense Advanced Research Projects Agenc...more »

[image: ohio vote] Donald Trump claims ISIS involvement in a minor disruption at a rally near Dayton. John Kasich says he's "had it" with Trump's "toxic" campaigning, and wonders whether he could support him if Trump won the nomination. Hillary Clinton is ahead...more »

[image: rant-jpeg-b] Yes it is Sunday again.. And that means as usual it is time for my weekly rant... Well, it does appear that spring is finally in the air here in central Canuckleheadistan (Yes, what I tend to call Canada these days with all the knuckleheads in this nation..) and the temperatures are indeed moderating towards spring like conditions... I of course have to again state that it has been a normal winter here, with no signs at all of all that "Global Warming" hype that the Jew spew media and the crooks running our governments try to promote... I am shocked that the ...more »

Or are ordered to leave? Which I think is the more likely reason for this remarkable and sudden redeployment. Incredible news, really? Why did ISIS leave? Why would they just leave such a strategically important city? Who gave the orders? The fighters were NOT under attack. They just left. *I do not believe the media narratives presented.(fighter shortages) Clearly someone told the fighters to pack it in.* *MEO* *“The Islamic State group on Sunday pulled its fighters out of Rutba, a desert town in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, an army general and the mayor said.* *The pull...more »

I remember 1989 the NASA Galileo launch almost 50 pounds of deadly toxic plutonium-238 onboard The Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice went to court trying to block the launch What happens if there is a launch mishap? What happens if Galileo failed to achieve proper orbit like the Russian Mars '96 mission falling back to Earth burning up on reentry spreading radioactive plutonium over Chile and Bolivia? What happens when workers at Los Alamos Labs get contaminated as they fabricate the plutonium generators for these space missions? In 1989 we also protested the Galileo launch a...more »

Wall Street Journal *David J. Kramer, American Interest*: *The Word in Tokyo: Crimea* *Faced with its own long-standing territorial issues with Russia, Japan under Shinzo Abe is holding a strong line against the illegal annexation of Crimea.* It took a recent trip to Japan to hear “Crimea” mentioned whenever the subject of Russia came up. Two years after Russia invaded Ukraine, starting with Crimea and its illegal annexation, one rarely hears about the peninsula these days in Europe or the United States. Distracted by Russian actions in Syria, Western government officials and anal...more »

As for *The Andrew Marr Show, *well, let's get the important stuff out of the way first... In the run-up to the Budget, this morning's *The Andrew Marr Show *featured John McDonnell and George Osborne - as seems to be something of a BBC/political class tradition. According to the *Huffington Post, *another tradition is that the Chancellor and the Shadow Chancellor then share a sofa at the end of the programme. Stop the presses! George Osborne apparently refused to share a sofa today with John McDonnell. According to 'a source': *Clearly Osborne is running scared that John...more »

Soldiers at a front-line position, Granite, outside the Ukrainian-controlled town of Shchastya. (Photo: Nolan Peterson/The Daily Signal) *Nolan Peterson, Daily Signal*: *‘War Is My Life': A Journey Along the Front Lines in Ukraine* SHCHASTYA, Ukraine—The late winter weather in Ukraine alternates among frigid, cool, snow, and rain—teasing the arrival of spring. The 2-year-old war, which has ravaged eastern Ukraine, killing more than 10,000 and displacing more than 1 million, is as fickle as the weather—teasing the possibility of peace without ever achieving it. Both sides of the c...more »

[image: President Barack Obama speaks to reporters about the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia at Omni Rancho Las Palmas in Rancho Mirage, Calif., Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016. Scalia, 79, was found dead Saturday morning at a private residence in the Big Bend area of West Texas.] Next month, the Supreme Court of the United States will hear oral argument in United States v. Texas, which is the legal challenge by Texas and numerous other states to the Obama administration’s “Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and...more »

*Washington Post*: *North Korea claims it could wipe out Manhattan with a hydrogen bomb* SEOUL — North Korea claimed Sunday that it could wipe out Manhattan by sending a hydrogen bomb on a ballistic missile to the heart of New York, the latest in a string of brazen threats. Although there are many reasons to believe that Kim Jong Un’s regime is exaggerating its technical capabilities, the near-daily drumbeat of boasts and warnings from Pyongyang underlines the regime’s anger at efforts to thwart its ambitions. “Our hydrogen bomb is much bigger than the one developed by the Soviet...more »

*Reuters*:* U.S., South Korea stage assault drill; North threatens to wipe out enemies* U.S. and South Korean troops staged a big amphibious landing exercise on Saturday, storming simulated North Korean beach defenses amid heightened tension and threats by the North to annihilate its enemies. The landing and assault drills on South Korea's east coast were part of eight weeks of joint exercises between the allies which the South has said are the largest ever. The North has denounced the exercises as "nuclear war moves" and threatened to respond with an all-out offensive. Tension o...more »

Rigorous freedom of expression advocacy, applied irrespective of societal taboos and dominant attitudes, is always political because it always has an effect towards leveling the playing field between powerful state-backed corporate and institutional forces and the individual. Discourse, including the extremes, is the main democratic mechanism against spontaneous advances of totalitarianism.

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff speaks during a news conference at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil March 11, 2016. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino *AFP*: *Massive anti-government protests set to shake Brazil* Brasília (AFP) - More than a million people are expected to flood Brazil's streets Sunday in massive anti-government protests calling for President Dilma Rousseff's ouster over a corruption scandal and the crumbling economy. Latin America's biggest country, which will host the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro this August, is in severe economic and political crisis, with fe...more »

[image: Pope Francis child sex abuse] VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Francis is marking his third anniversary as pope by reinforcing his message of mercy and giving away 40,000 copies of the Gospel of St. Luke. Nuns who work in the Vatican’s free pediatric clinic and...more »

[image: Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., points to the audience during campaign event, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016 in Kentwood, Mich.] While protests and rumors of protests at Trump events dominated the Saturday political news cycle, the business of choosing delegates was quietly taking place in Wyoming and Washington, DC. And the results were good news for Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio...more »

Nomination of General Scaparrotti to Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) approved https://t.co/2Yp3sruTEK pic.twitter.com/yaSuFNl1iF — NATO (@NATO) March 11, 2016 *DW:* *NATO confirms nomination of new top commander in Europe* *Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti will replace Gen. Philip Breedlove for a role that is traditionally held by an American. The change occurs as NATO faces increased threats from Russia along its borders and in Syria.* Scaparrotti, who currently oversees American armed forces in Korea, will take over the position at a critical time for NATO, when Russia is alleg...more »

By Paul Homewood http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/comment/article-3489370/SIMON-WATKINS-Britain-s-energy-policy-going-smoke-thanks-decades-short-term-politically-driven-policies.html Bit by bit, the MSM is catching up. From the Mail: The Chancellor is facing the usual litany of demands from business ahead of this week’s Budget, but there is one issue which is probably of greater significance for the future of the British economy that any […]

*Zero Hedge:* *Visualizing The Militarization Of The Middle East* While it’s hard to pin down an exact value of arms transfers, VisualCapitalist's Jeff Desjardins notes the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates that the number was at least $76 billion in 2013, with the caveat that it is likely higher. The volume of transfers have been trending upwards now for roughly 15 years *Read more* .... *WNU Editor*: And I suspect that 2016 will be a banner year for the arms merchants in the Middle East..

Hard times: Eighteen-year-old prostitute Katya scours the street for work as a police car drives past in Moscow in 1991 shortly before the collapse of the USSR *Daily Mail*: *Poverty, prostitutes and the long, slow death of the Soviet Union: Haunting pictures show desperate struggle to survive in last days of USSR* These shocking pictures may look like something out of the Great Depression - but in fact they show life in the last years of the Soviet Union, less than three decades ago. Shop shelves were often bare, it was normal to have to join a long queue if you wanted to buy gr...more »

By Paul Homewood h/t Dave Ward http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-3489294/Bio-fuel-emits-carbon-coal-U-S-watchdog-probe-shock-claims-power-giant-Drax-s-green-supplier.html From the Mail: Britain’s biggest power station has been plunged into crisis by a bombshell complaint to America’s financial regulator over its biggest supplier of ‘green’ fuel. The complaint alleges that the supplier to the Drax plant in North Yorkshire, US group Enviva, used […]

*Rahm and Hillary-- bad for Chicago working families* Hillary is counting on several factors to win in Illinois Tuesday. Born in Chicago and raised in the all-white suburb of Park Ridge, it's where she started her political career, canvassing first for Richard Nixon and then for her hero, Barry Goldwater. Her first-ever political cause was to accuse the Democrats of stealing the election from Nixon and trying to prove the Chicago Machine delivered the state illegally for JFK. More important to her on Tuesday, though, is that same political machine is now controlled by Clinton power-...more »

[image: Protesters take part in a demonstration against the refugee policy of the German government in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, March 12, 2016. The demonstrators, who appeared to be about 2,000 strong and carried German and other flags, were accompanied Saturday by a heavy police escort. Officers were keen to keep them away from counter-protesters. Text on large poster reads ‘German people - from driving force to nuisance factor'.] PARIS (AP) -- Left-wing European leaders tried to forge a common front Saturday in the continent’s migrant crisis while right-wing and extreme right gro...more »

[image: Justice Scalia - 900] If you are a lawyer in Washington, D.C. and if you are willing to stand in the cold for hours, you can get a front-row seat at one of the greatest legal shows in the world -- oral arguments before the...more »

[image: Bureaucracy Paperwork compressed] Lots of election hand wringing out there. Doctors complain of a tsunami of dyspeptics, psychologists are inundated by the anxious, even masseuses aren’t able to kneed the knots of stress quickly enough. Everybody is asking: Will American Bern in November?...more »

*Petition at Columbia University Calling for Divestment from Firms Doing Business With Israel* Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) strongly condemns a Faculty Petition calling for divestment from firms engaged in business dealings with Israel, signed by over 50 Columbia University professors, in which they collectively “take issue with our financial involvements in institutions associated with the State of Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian lands, continued violations of Palestinian human rights, systematic destruction of life and property, inhumane segregation a...more »

*Australian Greenies trying to crawl to the workers* *After their attacks on coal companies have caused big problems for those companies, Greenies are trying to shield themselves from the fallout of that. If the companies go broke, it will be bad news for their employees. And the Greenies don't want to be the target of unhappy employees. So the press release below is an appeal to the corporate regulator to "do something" about the financial health of the companies concerned. What the regulator could do is unknown* Environmental Justice Australia and Greenpeace International toda...more »

[image: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump describes how he was ready to punch a person who rushed the stage during an election rally earlier in the day, as he speaks to a crowd in Kansas City, Mo., Saturday, March 12, 2016.] CLEVELAND (AP) -- Hundreds of police officers, Secret Service agents and private security guards in cars, on foot and on horseback blanketed the area around Donald Trump’s campaign rally Saturday afternoon. Dozens of protesters would soon be ejected from the event....more »

[image: Trump supporters - 900] I have struggled trying to understand the support Donald Trump has gained in his run for the presidency. I have little respect for Trump as a candidate but am somewhat sympathetic to those supporting him. As I have considered his...more »

[image: Nuns from the Little Sisters of the Poor gather in New York September 24, 2015 as Pope Francis now heads to New York City. He is set to arrive and hold a prayer service at St. Patricks Cathedral.] Last week, over the dissent of Justice Samuel Alito, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving a prison's refusal to allow a Jewish man to study the Torah with others because of the prison official's erroneous interpretation...more »

A protester was stopped by Secret Service agents after he lunged at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a rally in Cleveland on Friday. The agents temporarily formed a protective ring around the Donald before quickly leaving the stage and allowing Trump to carry on with his speech at Dayton international airport in Ohio. Stuff reports: It was not immediately clear why the agents rushed onto the stage Saturday morning to surround Trump, who appeared to jolt after hearing something in the audience standing behind his right shoulder. Four Secret Service agents then ru...more »

President Barack Obama’s choice for the No. 2 position in NATO is a lady who is in favor of negotiations and has a less hawkish approach toward Russia. The appointment of a Russian friendly woman as NATO’s deputy secretary general is a cause for concern among Neocons. Russia Insider reports: Scandal: Obama Picks Lady Who Might Not Hate Russia Enough for Top NATO Post Obama’s choice for NATO’s deputy secretary general was once in favor of mending relations with Russia. Neo-cons are now threatening mass suicide if her appointment is confirmed. NATO: What does it stand for? “North Atla...more »

Saudi backed “Ahrar al-Sham” and “Jeish al-Islam” militant groups continue to gain ground in Syria, according to Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for the U.S. anti-ISIS coalition. Fars News English reports: Russia, Iran and Syria considers Ahrar al-Sham and Jeish al-Islam to be terrorist organizations and has opposed including representatives from either group in the intra-Syrian peace talks, Sputnik reported. “I am familiar with both of these groups [and] they are continuing to gain successes, they are continuing to learn how to fight this enemy [ISIL],” Warren stated when asked about ...more »

On the subject of *The Now Show,* the opening episode of the latest (469th) series, first broadcast a week last Friday, treated us to Punt'n'Dennis's take on the whole European referendum shebang (as they'd probably call it). Radio 4 knows the show is under particular scrutiny for pro-EU bias. Even *Feedback *covered the controversy over one especially pro-EU feature during the programme's last series, with the BBC's political advisor Ric Bailey telling Roger Bolton that *The Now Show *is subject to the BBC's impartiality guidelines and will play its part in achieving 'due balance...more »

http://www.brtstage.org/ The Republican Establishment and the Mainstream Media claim they are bewildered by the rise of Donald Trump. That claim, Neal Gabler writes, is as believable as Claude Rain's claim, in *Casablanca,* that he is "shocked, shocked" to discover that gambling is going on in Humphrey Bogart's place of business. But here is what no one in the GOP establishment wants you to know, and no one in the media wants to admit: Donald Trump isn’t the destruction of the Republican Party; he is the fulfillment of everythi...more »

A quick run through of some of my usual subjects... I didn't get very far with this week's *From Our Own Correspondent. *Kate Adie's introduction to the first report, talking of "The desperate and dispossessed...attempting to make the journey from Turkey to Europe", saw me off. ****** *The Now Show *probably doesn't use canned laughter, but I do wonder sometimes. I barely raised a titter this week. The audience sounded as if it was about to collectively wet itself with laughter. It didn't help that Jon Holmes did a bit on the Queen, Brexit and the *Sun* which relied on jokes ab...more »

Pascual Jordan was one of the 3-5 true founders of quantum mechanics. His contributions have been largely erased from the history books and textbooks because of his Nazi faith and he hasn't even received a Nobel prize – which I consider completely unfair – but that doesn't mean that I am ready to worship everything that Jordan was obsessed with. One of these things were Jordan algebras which he proposed as the modern correct formalization of the "algebra of observables" in quantum mechanics in 1933. If you're not familiar with those, you may look at the definition and the first stra...more »

The classic definition of “terrorism” is the use of violence against civilians to achieve a political goal. But the word ultimately has been transformed into a geopolitical insult. If “our” side is the target, it’s “terrorism,” even if it’s a case of local militants attacking an occupying military force. Yet, when “our” side is doing the killing, it is anything but “terrorism.” This double standard reinforces the notion that “only Muslims” commit acts of “terrorism,” because the Western news media, by practice, rarely applies the t-word to non-Muslims (and then only to groups oppose...more »

In this powerful speech recorded a few years ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin exposes the real face of the New World Order. According to the video’s description: When the West expands its EEU and NATO borders Eastwards breaking treaty after treaty, as in the Warsaw pact, the non nuclear proliferation treaty, disregards international law and the Geneva conventions, including double standards on its UN power to veto – it does it all under the mantra of diversifying economic markets, if Russia was to expand West, thorough some “Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership of th...more »

Large numbers of dairy farmers are boycotting vaccination programs, saying that animals aren’t getting any health benefits from the vaccines which the farmers say are costing them too much money. Big Pharma recommends that farmers vaccinate their animals against leptospirosis and infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), but farmers have said the aggressive push to have the animals vaccinated is just a way for Big Pharma to make money. Truthkings.com reports: But not everyone is happy about the decision many fo the farmers are making not to vaccinate their milk cows. In fact, much t...more »

New footage has been released online that shows a UFO flying above an airfield at supersonic speed, caught on camera inadvertently. The silver UFO was seen blazing across the sky at a high speed as the person filming recorded a nearby plane at Ysterplaat Airforce Base in Cape Town, South Africa. Dailystar.co.uk reports: The film was uploaded onto YouTube by Wesley Saunders on February 27 and has been viewed hundreds of times. He initially missed the UFO but slowed down the footage to get a closer look. Zooming in shows an oval-shaped craft with what appears to be a dome roof. It co...more »

Lieutenant General George S. Patton Jr., 1943. (pictured before his promotion to full General). *Jeremy Bender and Amanda Macias, Business Insider*: *'Do not fear failure': The best pieces of life advice from General George S. Patton* Few generals have had the lasting impact that Gen. George S. Patton has had. Patton, who commanded the US's 7th Army in Europe and the Mediterranean during World War II, is perhaps just as well known for his amazing insight into what makes for excellent and successful leadership. Showcasing Patton's most memorable and poignant quotes is author Charl...more »

*Harry J. Kazianis, National Interest:* *China's Greatest Fear: Dead and Buried Like the Soviet Union* Twenty-five years ago, the mighty Soviet Union was finally thrown onto the ash heap of history—never to rise again. And yet, the fall of one of the most powerful empires in human history, we often forget, was never a sure thing. Indeed, looking back just ten years’ time, to 1981, very few people foresaw the demise of the USSR. In fact, many made predictions that it was America who was in for a rough patch in the years to come. Even a cursory survey of history from that era depicts...more »

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, center left, lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as Army Maj. Gen. Bradley A. Becker looks on at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., March 11, 2016. Becker is the commanding general of the Army Military District of Washington. DoD photo by Marvin Lynchard

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro (C), Venezuela's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez (R) and Venezuela's Vice President Aristobulo Isturiz, attend a ceremony at the National Pantheon in Caracas March 9, 2016. REUTERS/MIRAFLORES PALACE/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS *Reuters:* *Venezuela opposition launches protests, Maduro counters* Venezuela's opposition launched a new protest campaign on Saturday to oust President Nicolas Maduro, but support was thin and the ruling Socialists countered it with their own "anti-imperialist" rally. Though thousands on both sides took to the streets of...more »

Newly released documents reveal that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intentionally misled the public about the safety of the controversial body scanners used by the TSA at airports. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) obtained documents via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) showing that body scanner technology poses a heightened risk of getting cancer due to dangerous levels of radiation being emitted. Topsecretwriters.com reports: In examining the TSA documents, EPIC discovered that the agency (TSA) “did not perform a ‘quantitative analysis’ of risks and...more »

*“6 Unhinged Right-Wing Moments This Week: * *The Denial of Reality Hits New Heights”* By Janet Allon "Various Trump loyalists, sycophants and nutjobs have surfaced this week to echo their master’s sentiment that people who oppose his message and protest at his rallies are very bad people who deserve what’s coming to them. In the good old days, Trump has said, “they would have been taken out in a stretcher.” *1. Omarosa Manigault: What do the protesters expect, a hug? *Omarosa Manigault, the contestant on the first season of Trump's reality show who has joined his team of crazies a...more »

A lazy Sunday, back to some math humor :-) For non-Filipino readers, the last equation, right hand side means sob. An engineer-economist friend commented that "pilit ang humor" because of the x = gina. hehe, true, it was "coerced" to produce some funny conclusion. Just for fun. Below, scattered memes and equations I got from the web. Witty and funny, like the infinity vs. 5, drink and derive. And the obtuse triangle, the square of 3 and cube of 3. A pi has an endless decimal, so very witty to say to get its last 4 digits. More. Election is coming, there should be part 2 of ...more »

An old friend called this morning to tell me he was running for Congress against a right-wing Republican in a fairly red district. He felt he had a chance to win because Hillary is popular in the area and he expected her to have strong coattails. "Bernie too," I offered, an offering which he was dismissive of. And that led to a discussion about what the value is of lifelong Democrats imbued with the progressive values and principles of the Democratic Party. He's a committed, lifelong Democrat and, although he hangs out with some shady establishment types these days, the values and ...more »

"State failure threatens global stability because national governments have become the primary building blocks of order. International security relies on states to protect against chaos at home and limit the cancerous spread of anarchy beyond their borders and throughout the world. States exist to deliver political (i.e., public) goods to their inhabitants. When they function as they ideally should, they mediate between the constraints and challenges of the international arena and the dynamic forces of their own internal economic, political, and social realities. . . Failed states ...more »

[image: Muslim - 900] The Associated Press published a "fact check" of Donald Trump's claim during Thursday's GOP debate that "Islam treats women horribly," saying it is untrue, even though there is ample evidence for such a statement. "No such generalization is supported by...more »

As Hillary Clinton keeps repeating her years-of-experience mantra, she, to put it lightly, stretches the truth. A quick look at Ms. Clinton’s record suggests that she is not only unqualified for the role of commander-in-chief, but could even be as or more dangerous than George W. Bush on an international scale. Her entirely false claims about Tuzla, Bosnia, of “landing under sniper fire” and “running for cover” are well-known. So too are her lines on Northern Ireland where Nobel Peace Prize winner Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey, Ireland, said she was “a wee bit silly” for exaggerating ...more »

I spent the afternoon phonebanking for Bernie.I have to tell you, the tools the Bernie Sanders campaign are using are much more sophisticated than what the Obama campaign had. Then, we were still working off of paper lists which volunteers had to type into computers. Bernie's team has built an incredible app you can do from a phone alone or from a phone and computer. This was the most high-tech

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff (R) listens to Vice President Michel Temer during a ceremony for the launch of the National Plan for Export at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, June 24, 2015. REUTERS/BRUNO DOMINGOS *Washington Post:* *Brazil’s coalition government may break apart in 30 days* BRASILIA — Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s main coalition partner served notice Saturday that it could break from her embattled Workers’ Party government in 30 days and join opposition efforts to unseat the leftist leader. At a rowdy convention of the fractious Brazilian Democrat...more »

*New York Times*: *White House Backs Off From Obama’s Critique of Cameron* WASHINGTON — In his much-discussed interview with The Atlantic magazine, President Obama unloaded on a number of American allies: Britain, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other Persian Gulf countries. On Friday, a White House official walked back Mr. Obama’s comments about the closest of the allies, Britain, and its prime minister, David Cameron. “President Obama values deeply the special relationship between the United States and our allies in the U.K.,” the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, tol...more »

Spectator *The Independent:* *EU referendum: Barack Obama to urge Britons to back remain vote on UK visit* Exclusive: Prospect of intervention is major coup for the pro-EU campaign, but has prompted fury from Brexiteers Barack Obama will jet into the UK next month and use his star power to convince Britons they should vote to stay in the European Union. The timing of the US President’s intervention, a major coup for the Remain campaign, is revealed by The Independent on Sunday, as a ComRes poll for this newspaper finds that Boris Johnson, unofficial leader of the Leave campaign,...more »

*Reuters*: *President's troops break siege of Yemen's third city* Forces loyal to Yemen's president have broken a siege by the Iranian-allied Houthis around the strategic Yemeni city of Taiz, local fighters and residents said on Saturday, as the United States raised the possibility of a Syrian-style truce in Yemen. At least 48 people were killed in heavy clashes in Yemen's third biggest city, medics and local fighters said, and at least 120 were wounded. Witnesses said there were bodies scattered in the streets. Supporters of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, backed by a Saudi-led...more »

"It is bigger than a bread box. In fact, it is much bigger than all bread boxes put together. Galaxy cluster ACT-CL J0102-4915 is one of the largest and most massive objects known. Dubbed "El Gordo", the seven billion light years (z = 0.87) distant galaxy cluster spans about seven million light years and holds the mass of a million billion Suns. *Click image for larger size.* The above image of El Gordo is a composite of a visible light image from the Hubble Space Telescope, an X-ray image from the Chandra Observatory showing the hot gas in pink, and a computer generated map showing ...more »

*“The Universe Becomes Conscious of Itself” * by Chet Raymo "By now most of us will have seen this spectacular photograph of a dusty star-birthing region of the Carina Nebula, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope. I offer a slightly different cropping from what you may have seen in the media or on APOD. Please click the image to see it it all of its glory. *Click image for larger size.* Let me add some context. The image shows an area of the sky that you could cover with the intersection of two crossed sewing pins held at arms length. Think about that for a...more »

"Looking at the people, listening to the breathing, heaving, laughing, struggling music of the slum, all around me, I remembered one of Khaderbhai's favorite phrases. “Every human heartbeat,” he'd said many times,” is a universe of possibilities.” And it seemed to me that I finally understood exactly what he'd meant. He'd been trying to tell me that every human will has the power to transform its fate. I'd always thought that fate was something unchangeable: fixed for every one of us at birth, and as constant as the circuit of the stars. But I suddenly realized that life is strange...more »

*“Experiences We Don’t Understand: Hidden Gems”* by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM “All of the events in our lives lead to other events, they are all connected. Sometimes we have an experience that we don’t understand, but if we look deeply, or wait long enough, a reason for that experience will usually reveal itself. All the events in our lives lead to other events, and all that we have manifested in this present moment is the result of past events and experiences. We cannot easily tease apart the many threads that have been woven together to create our current reality. Experiences t...more »

*"The Meadow Across the Creek"* by Thomas Berry "I was a young person then, some twelve years old. My family was moving from a more settled part of a Southern town out to the edge of town where the new house was still being built. The house, not yet finished, was situated on a slight incline. Down below was a small creek and there across the creek was a meadow. It was an early afternoon in May when I first looked down over the scene and saw the meadow. The field was covered with lilies rising above the thick grass. A magic moment, this experience gave to my life something, I know n...more »

*"Nuggets From the Net:* *Resources You May Enjoy"* by CP ◆ "The project aims to create high-quality, most complete and well-structured online repository of fine art. We hope to make classical art a little more accessible and comprehensible, and also want to provide a new form of interaction between contemporary artists and their audience. In the future we plan to cover the entire history of art — from cave artworks to the new talents of today. The project is non-profit. WikiArt filling system is based on the principle of wiki, i.e. free filling and editing the contents of the site...more »

A ballistic missile is launched and tested at an undisclosed location in Iran in this handout photograph released by the official website of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps March 8, 2016. PHOTO: REUTERS/SEPAHNEWS.COM/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS *IBTimes*: *Israel’s Netanyahu Calls On UN To Punish Iran Over Missile Tests* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the United Nations on Saturday to punish Iran over the country’s reported ballistic-missile tests last week. Western officials indicated they believed the ideologically driven Iranian Revolutionary Guards conducted the...more »

*Reuters*:* Government and opposition far apart over Assad before Syria peace talks* Syria's government on Saturday ruled out any discussion of the fate of the presidency at peace talks this week, just as the lead opposition negotiator said a political transition could not even start unless Bashar al-Assad was no longer president. The statements reflected the huge challenges facing diplomats as they prepare for talks to resume in Geneva on Monday, trying to build on a ceasefire deal that has reduced violence sharply since Feb. 27. Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem confirmed his g...more »

*VICE News*: *Islamic State Chemical Weapons Attack Said to Injure 600 and Kill 3-Year-Old Girl in Iraq* The Islamic State (IS) launched two attacks using chemical weapons on a town in northern Iraq early on Saturday, Iraqi officials told the Associated Press, a week after US-led coalition airstrikes targeted the militant group's chemical facilities. A 3-year-old girl was killed and around 600 people were reportedly injured in the small town of Taza, not far from Kirkuk. Hundreds more are said to have fled their homes. Helmi Hamdi, a nurse at the Taza hospital, told the AP that t...more »

*-by Tracy B Ann* Some people have no sense of place, nowhere that they feel strong ties to, nowhere they can call home. I have a couple. Michigan is where I was born and grew up and it will always be home to me. I live in Tennessee and it’s all right. There are a lot of things that I like about it here. It’s a lot warmer than Michigan, there are nice hills, and, um, it’s warmer than Michigan. I think I’ve been to most states in the country, except Texas. Sorry, but Texas just freaks me out. I was on a tour bus close to getting there once when I had to stop, get off and fly home...more »

Peg with Pen: Do Aurora Public School Parents Know they can REFU...: Next week my school begins PARCC testing (it may be called CMAS in some schools). And for the most part, very few parents know that they can...more »

[image: egyptlaw] CAIRO (AP) -- An Egyptian court sentenced a blogger to three years in jail with hard labor on Saturday for “spreading false news” after he said about 45 percent of married Egyptian women have the readiness for “immorality” and to...more »

[image: SpaceX's Falcon 9 ORBCOMM 2 Launch on December 28, 2015.] Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX and Russian company NPO Energomash are locked in a struggle to supply rocket engines to the U.S. military. NPO Energomash currently sells RD-180 rocket engines to American company United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between...more »

The Justice Department has opened another front in the war against secure encryption by going after WhatsApp. The DOJ is frustrated with the popular messaging app’s strong encryption and might go after its parent company, Facebook, in a case similar to Apple-iPhone Vs FBI. Ars Technica reports: According to a Saturday report in The New York Times, prosecutors have gone head-to-head with WhatsApp, the messaging app owned by Facebook. Citing anonymous sources, the Times reported that “as recently as this past week,” federal officials have been “discussing how to proceed in a continuing...more »

A Syrian Air Force MiG-21 was downed near a military airfield in Hama Governorate. Armed Islamic State militants shot and killed the pilot. Sputnik reports: Syrian Air Force MiG-21 has been downed by armed militants near a military airfield in western Hama Governorate, a military source told Sputnik. The pilot had been shot dead from the ground while parachuting, according to the source. “A Syrian warplane MiG-21 was shot down near the Hama military airfield,” the source said. The pilot was able to eject but died when militants opened fire at him. “The militants shot at the pilot wh...more »

Six decades and eleven presidents later; from Eisenhower to Obama, Israel has been duping U.S. presidents, using and abusing America’s power and influence for their own gain while the media dupes the public into thinking it’s for the greater good. The American Government has sacrificed countless lives and the welfare of its own people for Israel’s sake. How does this keep happening and who’s to blame? Morgan Strong, Consortium: Manipulating Icke In the 1950s, President Dwight Eisenhower was a strong supporter of the fledgling Jewish state and had supplied Israel with advanced U.S. w...more »

[image: Food Stamps Sign, SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Welfare] The main federal agency tasked with providing food stamps proposed a rule Friday aimed at restricting funds from being used to recruit people into the program. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers the food stamp program -- officially known as...more »

[image: August 13, 2014 - Iraqi Yazidi refugees receive help from International Rescue Committee at Newroz camp in Al-Hassakah province, north eastern Syria after fleeing Islamic State militants.] The House is set to vote Monday on whether the Islamic State is committing genocide against Christians and Yazidis in Syria and Iraq. GOP Rep. Jeff Fortenberry's resolution, which argues ISIS most certainly is genociding Christians and Yazidis, will hit...more »

The President of the National Association of Scholars has slammed Common Core saying that its program currently implemented in schools across America is deliberately dumbing down our kids, leaving them unprepared for further education and work. Parents and teachers alike have criticised the Common Core States Initiative program, which was started in June 2010 as part of Obama’s Race-To-The-Top (RTTT) program, saying its method of teaching and testing holds back smart students and stifles creativity. Wakingtimes.com reports: The US federal Government has stated that their goal with ...more »

A medical researcher has said that American citizens are currently being made sick by a “mystery” flu as a result of a government-pharmaceutical campaign of spraying poisons into our atmosphere via chemtrails. According to Dr. Len Horowitz elements of the U.S. government and Big Pharma are conspiring to make large portions of the population sick by slowly and deliberately destroying the immune system of millions of Americans. People have been hacking and coughing with this bizarre illness that does not seem to follow any logical viral or bacterial onset and transition period. If it ...more »

New research conducted in Liberia by U.S. neurologists has found that anyone who contracts Ebola will likely face a lifetime of disease and serious long-term neurological problems if they survive. The study says that survivors will continue to suffer the affects of Ebola, even after they have been declared “Ebola-free” – meaning that contracting Ebola is for life. Naturalnews.com reports: The preliminary results of the study were made public within days of the news that Pauline Cafferkey, a nurse who contracted the disease while volunteering in Sierra Leone, had been admitted to th...more »

A new study published by the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health has warned consumers that one of the most popular sugar alternatives ‘Splenda’, also known as sucralose, causes leukemia. The artificial sweetener was fed to mice during a trial, and they developed leukemia and other blood cancers as a result. Local10.com reports: Nutrition watchdog group Center for Science in the Public Interest is formally recommending that consumers avoid sucralose. Artificial sweetener Splenda is sucralose-based. It’s a big deal considering this is the same company that ...more »

The United States federal government have told authorities on the West coast to make emergency plans in case of a nuclear attack by North Korea, as the situation between North and South Korea have taken a dangerous turn this weekend. South Korea have warned that they may be forced to react militarily if North Korea continue to provoke them: “If the North continues to make provocations despite the stern warnings made by our military, it is inevitable for us to roll out a strict response that may lead to the destruction of the Pyongyang regime,” the South Korean Chiefs Of Staff said ...more »

France has intensified its war on free speech this week by arresting a woman for wearing a T-shirt that criticised Israel by promoting the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement in support of Palestine. The woman was taking part in a march for International Women’s Day in Paris on Sunday, when undercover police grabbed her and detained her for wearing the ‘illegal’ t-shirt that had the words “Boycott Apartheid Israel” printed on it. The arrest confirms that France will no longer tolerate t-shirts it deems to be offensive, marching the once great nation towards all-out tyr...more »

A startling cloud formation over the skies of Edinburgh, Scotland saw what appeared to be a fire-breathing dragon alongside the hand of God blaze across the skies. Nypost.com reports: Tom Foster, a 26-year-old physician, was photographing the Scottish capital when he captured the brilliant scene above. “When I first saw the cloud I knew it looked spectacular but it wasn’t until after I took the picture and looked at it on my camera that I started to see the unusual shape it made,” said the amateur shutterbug, who posted the image on Facebook. “What I see most often is the ‘hand of G...more »

A chilling glimpse of life under ISIL in Syria was exposed to western journalists when they visited the northern town of al-Shadadi. The ISIL stronghold was recently liberated by Kurdish-led fighters of the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF). Euro News reports: One resident pointed out makeshift gallows. Elsewhere amid the destruction, bombs and explosives are found in the street and in buildings. Many of the abandoned houses contained bunkers and escape tunnels. The team from Britain’s Sky News was also shown a hotel said to have been used by the extremists to assault women. One witness...more »

Scientists measuring the risk of severe earthquakes that could bring havoc to southern California warn of the dangers of the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults rupturing together. Data suggests that they may have ruptured together in the past leading scientists to call for a risk assessment review. The Guardian reports: The warning follows latest research from a US geologist who found that two large faults in the region – the San Andreas and the neighbouring San Jacinto fault to its south – might have ruptured together in the past, producing an earthquake that caused damage as far n...more »

*Pending Update: "Your Radiation This Week, Feb 27 to March 5, 2016"* By Bob Nichols "I didn't say it would be easy. I just said it would be the truth." - Morpheus (San Francisco) March 5, 2016 – "Good Day, this is “Your Radiation This Week.” These are the recorded Radiation Highs that affected people this week around the United States and in your neighborhood. Let’s get right to it. Twenty-four [24] cities exceeded 1,000 CPM this week in Your Rad Weather. There are fifteen (15) cities between 900 and 999 CPM. Have a wonderful radioactive weekend and remember to Dodge the Rads, it’...more »

*“Unexpected ESCALATION in Korean* * Peninsula **Situation Getting Dangerous” * by NewsRoom "Alaska, Hawaii, California, Oregon and Washington are quietly being told to make emergency preparations in case of attack by North Korea as the situation between the North And South Korea took a decidedly dangerous turn this morning when the South Korean Chiefs of Staff issued a terse warning. "If the North continues to make provocations despite the stern warnings made by our military, it is inevitable for us to roll out a strict response that may lead to the destruction of the Pyongyang reg...more »

[image: Sen. Ben Sasse speaking at CPAC 2015 in Washington, DC.] Top Obamacare officials told a Senate panel Thursday that they can't guarantee the government ever will recover billions of taxpayer dollars loaned to health insurance "co-ops." "Today's hearing is about the families who lost their health care plans, it's about...more »

The FBI have said that as part of their criminal investigation against Hillary Clinton they have lined up a witness that could potentially destroy her chances of becoming President. Former Clinton IT specialist Bryan Pagliano has told FBI officers about how the home email system was set-up, and according to FBI sources they say his testimony make him a “devastating witness” against Hillary: The source said Pagliano told the FBI who had access to the former secretary of state’s system – as well as when – and what devices were used, amounting to a roadmap for investigators. “Bryan Pa...more »

The love-in between Trudeau and Obama has happened. And our news media have told us all about it. They agreed on climate change. What they agreed isn't clear. But they agreed; and that's nice. Mrs. Trudeau and Mrs. Obama got along just great. And Mrs. Trudeau just dazzled American viewers with her lovely dresses designed just for her. They've told us, oh, just everything - except why Obama made this meeting such a big deal. No president of the U.S. at this time could possibly afford to take off all this time or arrange all this coverage just to have a jolly good time. The news medi...more »

When presumptive Republican nominee, Herr Trumpf, remarks ominously-- as he often does-- that he hasn't even *started* on Hillary yet, what he means is that he hasn't started tearing the most ethically flawed Democratic nominee in decades to shreds. There is as much material for him to use to brand her with as is there for the Democrats-- who aren't nearly as good at it as he is-- to use to brand him with. If these two sub-par candidates is the best their parties can do, America is in more trouble than most scholars have supposed. Thursday, three scholars-- Alan Abramowitz, Ronald...more »

[image: US pentagon building aerial view at sunset] The Pentagon blew through nearly half a billion dollars in improper travel payments to troops without expense receipts, according to a new inspector general report. Investigators found that despite the Pentagon's efforts to align itself with a 2010 law designed...more »

[image: Joerg Meuthen, top candidate of the Alternative for Germany (AFD) for the state election in German state Baden-Wuerttemberg attends an election campagin event of his party in Ludwigsburg, southwestern Germany, on February 27, 2016.] Germany's surging anti-immigration party Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) wants to restrict some religious practices for Muslims, including a ban on circumcision. Newspaper Bild will release leaked information from AfD's 72-page manifesto in its Saturday edition. The draft says circumcision on...more »

It's becoming harder and harder to watch MSNBC election coverage. I find myself flipping the channel whenever Chris Matthews comes on. His brand of corporate, establishment conservatism colors everything he says. His sly, vicious little jihad against Bernie has been turning more and more Bernie supporters off to MSNBC entirely. I honestly have no idea who Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell or Chris Hayes leans towards, if anyone. They are effortlessly fair (and, dare I say, balanced) in their reporting and commentary. Matthews is equally effortless in his crusade to elect the corru...more »

- Young people by the hundreds protested inside a Donald Trump rally last night in Chicago and as a result the presidential candidate cancelled his event just prior to its start. Trump has repeatedly called for protesters to be punched in the face, dragged out of his rallies, and even once contemplated from the stage whether they should be killed. In recent days at one of his events in North Carolina a young black man who had been peacefully protesting inside the Trump rally was hit in the face by one of the right-wing Trump supporters who was later caugh...more »

Saudi Arabia told the United Nations Human Rights Council that it fights torture and leads the way on human rights. While fibbing over its human rights record to the UN, the Kingdom currently plans to hang three juveniles on the basis of confessions that were extracted under duress. Bandar al-Ali, the Saudi Minister of Culture and Information, made his comments in a speech delivered to the UN in Geneva in response to a report delivered to the Human Rights Council by Juan Mendez, the special rapporteur on torture. RT reports: Al-Ali said the Gulf theocracy, which is closely allied...more »

The UK is to deploy more troops to Iraq to help train Iraqi forces as they prepare for a new offensive against ISIS. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said on Saturday that Britain would send 30 extra troops to provide training in logistics and bridge-building as well as specialist medical staff. That would take the total number of UK personnel on training mission in Iraq to 300 Press TV reports: “Now is the time to step up our training of Iraqi forces, as they prepare for operations in key cities such as Fallujah and Mosul,” Fallon said, adding that Britain has made “solid progress”...more »

(By *American Zen*'s Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari Goldstein) "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters." - Donald Trump, Iowa, January 23, 2016 "If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever." - George Orwell, 1948, *1984* *S*ometimes, I wonder how Senator Bernie Sanders can stand the parallels, similarities and ironies that unite him with Donald Trump. It must be like someone perpetually horrified at the deformed vestigial twin attached to him with no chance of removing the loathsome appendage...more »

*for not speaking the truth.* You claim to be an outsider - someone who is not part of the establishment. This brouhaha in Chicago was an opportunity for you to stand up against those insiders who organized and fomented violence in the hopes of hurting Trump. *MoveOn.org* orchestrated the whole protest in Chicago, along with their buddies BlackLivesMatter, and any other street thugs they could round up. On the heels of your calling Trump supporters "low-information" and "not engaged", may I point out it was not Trump supporters causing mayhem in the streets? It was uneducated th...more »

*SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 2016Fast times at Tribal High:* Way back then, Mr. Lincoln was devoted to a noble if misdescribed experiment. In an address the world would little note, he expressed an ongoing desire—his desire that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Today we're engaged in one of those eras where sensible people might wonder if we the people have the tools to meet that famous challenge. In an attitude we'll steal from Lincoln, we'll suggest that the possible failure of that experiment is apparent today in the conduct of...more »

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I've been 'around' for a few years now, pursuing the shifting goal of a sharable home-made surfers resource site focused on ease of use and variety of mostly adult ( whoa : I didn't say prurient ) content.